PM Lee's National Day Message 2014 by Ki Eunyu

PM Lee's National Day Message 2014

Summary: PM Lee mentioned that Singapore has been progressing. This was due to the efforts of the pioneers who brought Singapore up from third country to the first. More schemes have been made to help them. More schemes are made for the life after retirement. He also mentioned that everyone has opportunity to succeed in Singapore's system. Education is very important. Along with education, social values to not to judge a person by education qualifications is important. The bonds between Singaporeans must be strong. Singapore will continue to progress on with all the people working together.

Opinion: I felt that although I am not Singaporean, this speech was meaningful as it showed how system in Singapore continues to progress with new ideas and plans. I felt that it was good for Singapore to recognise talents not just based on academics. This way Signapore will be able to progress on more as different areas are getting developed well. 

A Grim Future for Tropical Forests by ZhiGang

Summary: Tropical forests harbor more than half of the world’s species found on land. A new study reveals that continued deforestation and logging, coupled with the effects of global warming, will devastate these precious tropical environments with the plants and animals that live there by the end of the century. Clear-cutting forested land destroys the environment totally, wiping out the homes and food sources for the animals that lived there. The effects of logging and climate change are more subtle, but still poignant.

Opinion: In my opinion, I feel that Man are irresponsible. They have been cutting down trees in the forests has destroyed the environment totally. They say that they want to save the environment, save the planet, but these actions are terrible. Like Indonesia have been burning down forests for agriculture. Perhaps they want to make a living, but as they grow crops, these lands become infertile, barren and becomes impossible for reforestation. Even worse, this results in the haze of neighboring countries.

Singapore reaches out to Indonesian travellers with new campaign by ZhiGang

Summary: The new campaign has been launched in Jakarta by the Singapore Tourism Board and like its predecessors, it is focused on tailoring and delivering experiences that are based on a deeper understanding of consumer means in key visitor-source markets. Many Indonesians travel abroad for differentiated lifestyle needs such as shopping, entertainment, attractions and dining. A majority are free and independent travelers who are familiar with nearby city destinations and are particularly drawn to new experiences. 

Opinion: In my opinion, I feel proud of Singapore as my country. I am happy with the management of the country by the government. To improve her economics, she reached out to countries to form a strong relationship with them and as well as to promote the country through tourism, jobs. This has brought in an overwhelming tourists, investors, foreign workers into Singapore because they understand that Singapore is a multi-racial society and country with a stable economic.

Overview: PM Lee's National Day Rally Speech by ZhiGang

Summary: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has highlighted the need for economic growth and a cultural change to help all Singaporeans achieve their potential. Mr Lee outlined how Singaporeans can attain success through different routes, regardless of their academic qualifications. To help the older generation of Singaporeans, Mr Lee also announced policy enhancement to the national savings scheme. Overall, Mr Lee urged Singaporeans to be the pioneers of their own generation in the next 50 years and beyond.

Opinion: In my opinion, I feel that it is important for a government to be properly managed. Many years, there have been debate over the possession of paper qualification in Singapore. After this rally, this shows that the government has taken into the consideration of its people and to build a society whereby everyone have the chance to have a job of their choice despite their education level. Since Singapore has a competitive education system, this would benefit the weaker students.

 

Singapore Tourism Board targets focal points in India By Carlenko Wang

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is giving 'segment marketing' a big thrust in India, so as to attract more visitors from the country. Out of an estimated 7 million people from across the globe, who visited Singapore during January, about 3.4% were from India. India, especially South India has become a growing market for Singapore, which has become a country with well developed infrastructure. The focus is only limited by imagination policy, pointed out by the STB. Overall, STB has pegged a modest growth rate of 6-8 per cent for visitors from India during the current year, as against over 12 per cent growth in the past.STB also said that as we expand the base, it will be unrealistic to expect to maintain double-digit growth.

In my opinion, I think that the STB is going to the correct direction of exploiting the visitor resources from India so as to further Singapore’ tourism income .Singapore is a renowned tourism country .However, the tourism income has fallen since the development of tourism other countries. In order to maintain our superiority, such policy is essential.

Ignore IQ Tests: Your Level of Intelligence Is Not Fixed for Life By Carlenko Wang

The New Scientist has raised a view of gradual decline in IQs in developed countries .The IQ Test ,designed by French psychologist in 1900s ,was to help distinguish between individual intellectual abilities .However ,the test result is thought to be fixed through one’s life ,further limiting people’s potential by setting barrier to be confident . Scores makes intelligence look relatively constant, whereas in fact we are all becoming more intelligent across and within our lifetimes. This particular use of IQ tests has caused one leader in the field of intelligence research, Robert Sternberg, to refer to IQ testing as “negative psychology” in a 2008 article.

In my opinion ,the IQs test has both drawbacks and advantages .It helps one to realize one’ intellectual abilities by pointing out the level of his intelligence .In some extent ,such function indeed helps some people to understand their abilities and to be pragmatic . However, our intelligence is not fixed. On the contrary, it grows with the age .As such, it is expected that people will set barrier to be better themselves, telling themselves that their failures are supposed to be like that. The drastically limit people’s potential ,making people stop to keep improving themselves .In a nutshell ,IQ test is a coin with two sides ,which should be implemented properly.

National Day PM Lee Speech By: Carlenko Wang

The Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has emphasized the need of economic growth as well as a cultural change to help Singaporeans achieve their potential in the National Day Rally . Mr. Lee sketched how Singaporeans can attain success through different routes, regardless of their academic qualification. He also announced the policy enhancements to the national saving scheme. The scheme is to commemorate the pioneer generation’ contributions to the development of Singapore. He said they wrote the opening chapters of the Singapore Story. Mr. Lee pointed out that Singapore's physical transformation has been remarkable. One ambitious future transformation being planned is at the Jurong Lake District, which will bring together the Jurong Lake Park, and the Chinese and Japanese Gardens.

In my opinion, the National Day Rally is rich in information and raised different ideas of how to be a successful Singaporean. Regardless of one’s paper qualification, one can develop himself and put himself to his limits through different careers. Since last 49 years, some critics argue that one can never have a bright future in an academically-driven society in Singapore. This Rally has rebutted these views by showing off different case of being successful through other alternatives, apart from academic aspect. I believe it is a drastic progress as Singapore has become a land of success to many people. We need to keep up with the international economy pace so as to attain more and more progresses. 

National Day PM Lee Speech By: Sherman Teo

Summary:
The government is putting more and more effort into Singapore's education system in Polytechnics and ITE. These school have top class facilities for both students and educators alike. He mentioned that the education system in Singapore does not just revolve around the fact that we have to get degrees from universities to get good jobs. He had shown many people who had successful careers even without a degree. Many of them had clinched a top earning job despite their achievements in the academics. This then allowed the Prime Minister to state the point that we should work for a achievement or goal job which we would like rather than working in a condition which we do not like.
Opinion:
In my opinion, I believe that what the Prime Minister had stated is true because there are many people who do not have top qualifications but they can also make a very large contribution. This is mainly because the person has the desire and passion for the job. With desire and passion together with hard work, we will be able to achieve anything and everything. Academics may sometimes not be everything to our future jobs but rather, our passion determines what happens and what we pursue.

Singaporeans' satisfaction with public transport drops by ZhiGang

Summary: Singaporean’s overall satisfaction with the public transport system has dipped. The Land Transport Authority said that the dips in satisfaction level may be a reflection of increased ridership. Despite the low satisfaction of Singaporeans, more people are making public transport their choice mode. Surprisingly, more care-owning households are using public transport for daily commute, compared to four years ago. The government aims to achieve a peak period public transport mode share of 70 percent in 2020 and 75 percent by 2030.

Opinion: In my opinion, I feel that Singaporeans are a complain lot. They complain about everything that the government does and nothing seems to satisfy them at all. Parents usually complained about how education system is stressful in Singapore. The government tried to fulfill the needs of the parents by removing the banding of secondary school in Singapore. Yet, Singaporeans have yet to compliment the government and instead complain about what the government have done. Singaporeans are never satisfied with the government. 

COE premiums for cars rise by Carlenko Wang

Certificate of Entitlement premiums for cars has recently raised in the latest bidding exercise. Premiums for big car has increased drastically which rose 6.3 percent while that of open category rose 5.5 percent. Although the premium has raised because of the strong demands for COE and the popularity of new models, buyers are more care about the entitlement to own a car. High COE premiums and the high demand for cars suggests that the Government’ has put efforts to encourage Singaporeans to shift from private to public transport, which does not has the desired effect

In my opinion, indeed we should praise the government’s efforts to let citizens to shift from private transport to public transport so as to promote Singapore’s traffic conditions. However, the government should explore more alternatives to educate citizens the importance of maintaining good traffics and the benefits of taking public transport. This will be more effective than aimlessly raising the premiums of COE as it changes people’s understandings of transport.  

Progress comes with making mistakes By Sherman Teo

Summary:
Making progress means taking risks and making brilliant blunders. Thomas Edison is reputed to have said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This statement sums up a fundamental — but often misunderstood — truth about scientific inquiry. The mistakes that are integral to scientific progress are not those that result from haste, sloppiness or inexperience. Rather, they are the mistakes that arise from thoughtful, meticulous experimentation based on bold ideas — the kind of ideas that can lead to major breakthroughs. One may wonder whether today’s highly competitive, funding-starved scientific atmosphere, in which publications and citations have become a primary criterion for success, can accommodate such mistakes. The simple answer is yes. Indeed, they are as important as ever — and not only in academia. In fact, the entire scientific method is based on the notion that discovering what does not work is vital to learning what does. Any scientific theory must be falsifiable — that is, based on existing observations or experimental results. For a theory to be considered scientific, it must yield specific predictions of future observations or experimental results. If those observations or results contradict the predictions, the theory is discarded, or at least must be modified.

Opinion:
In my opinion, many of the risks that we take today will lead to mistakes however, these mistakes are the steps which we require to reach our goals. Many of our inventions nowadays were also due to the accidents and the making of mistakes by the scientists. People believe that mistakes are bad and the result of extremely lazy work however, they may sometimes lead to unexpected things with a better result as compared previously.

Little India riot: The dog that did not bark-Ryan

Summary: In the aftermath of the Little India riot, the focus and dominant narrative, unsurprisingly, have been on law and order issues.The Government is also emphatic that the riot did not signal local-foreign resentment. Since in Singapore, foreign labour consist of about 40 percent of our population. So we should do improvement to their living condition and environment to prevent such things from happening as such incident happen was because of no one taking care of such thing with care.

Opinion:  In my opinion, I believe that such thing would not happen again if such problem are taken care of. Since it had happened we should not take it as a lesson learn and should not because of this break the racial harmony in Singapore.

Retirement is a journey, not a destination by Carlenko Wang

Increasing life expectancy and low birth rate lead Singapore to tackle with a shrinking and aging population and workforce. The government has taken steps to relief the situation; however citizens should cooperate as well. The retired elderly still work so as to have income for their elderly lives. Planning early ensures a better retirement.  The most common pitfalls people make in planning for retirement and future needs is not saving enough; starting too late; and underestimating the effects of inflation.

In my opinion, there is no doubt that we need to take actions to deal with the issues that aging population has brought us with .Not only our government need to be wise to coordinate the social resources, we also need to prepare for our retirement fund .However, these steps are only temporary for the existing issues .The most effective way is to increase the birth rate in Singapore. As long as enough workforce due to high birth rate contributes to the economic development ,our economy will be strong enough to support the social resources required such as retirement funds ,thus completely solve the current problem of social resources shortage.

Is Singapore soil fertile for creativity?

Singapore’s pursuit for innovation within organizations has been blocked by the structure of the organization ,the mindset of its leader or within the culture itself. The expectation of creativity is an obstacle. Such obstacles are not confined to Asian but also oversea companies. Aversion to failure can also be the barrier for innovation. Yet, despite the factors that seem to weigh against innovation in Asia and Singapore, there is evidence to suggest things may be moving in a different direction. It may be just a matter of putting in place processes that will encourage a greater spirit of creativity, thus fuelling innovation.

In my opinion: To cultivate an innovative culture, we need to re-engineer our educational system. It takes at least ten to fifteen years to develop a nation of innovative thinkers and actors. What the government should do is to introduce a Subject from Primary School up on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and assess and select talented students to be upgraded to a Secondary-level " School of Innovation and Global Entrepreneurship" with the help of private sector business leaders' active involvements.The 30 000 Teachers Workforce is not cut out to perform should functions.